Hometown Glory

Firstly, if anybody reading this happens to be a regular reader of my blog and disappointed by my recent quietness, then apologies for the lull and thanks for coming back!  I’d like to be able to give a decent and comprehensive reason for not posting in so long, but the best I can really do is ‘I’ve been busy’!  Anyway, I’m back now, and hopefully that’s the most important thing!

One of the reasons for my not blogging in so long is that I went on holiday for just under a week to Budapest (I had a lovely time and would definitely recommend adding it to your list of places to go, if you haven’t already!).  Although I had a great time, I was very disappointed to find that the entirety of the Olympics road cycling was taking place while I was away, which meant I missed all of it.  Other than that, I didn’t feel that bothered about the Olympics in the run-up, but I actually got surprisingly into it when I got back from my holiday.  I was amazed and inspired by how well Team GB did and found it really exciting to watch them win medal after medal.  As a keen amateur cyclist myself, I was particularly pleased to see us doing so well in the track cycling (although don’t even get me started on Victoria Pendleton’s relegation in the Individual Sprint final, or the fact that we’re only allowed to enter one person or team per event in the cycling, whilst Jamaica are allowed to claim every medal in the Men’s 200m Sprint!).  

Anyway, I digress (I seem to have a habit of doing that!).  The point I’m trying to make is that I became really enthusiastic about the Olympics and kind of surprised myself by just how much I’d got into it.  This was most noticeable when I found myself getting quite defensive when a friend expressed unfavourable feelings towards it, and we found ourselves having healthy but somewhat heated discussion!  It started when I asked this friend (for ease of writing style, I will now point out that this friend’s name is Beth…) whether she had been watching any of the Olympics, to which she replied that competitive sports and misplaced national pride makes her feel sick!  I must admit I was a little taken aback by this remark; I knew she wasn’t really a fan of sport but hadn’t been aware that she was disgusted by the whole concept!  Anyway, I went on to ask her why she saw this national pride as being misplaced, and she came back with a persuasive reply that almost made me feel a little guilty for my abundant enthusiasm for the Games!  I like to think I made quite a decent counter-argument though; in fact, I think we both made some good points, which is why I decided to write a blog post about it. 

Beth’s reply when I asked her about her ideas of misplaced national pride was this:

“I feel there should be no pride in wasting millions of pounds in training a teeny tiny percentage of people to do something physical very well. Of course it’s likely that ‘we’, the fifth richest nation in the world, can afford to train people very well to do something, so why is this an achievement, or anything to feel good about?  The best possible future use of all that money that was wasted was that in a few years’ time, a few more people might win some more pointless medals.  Why is that a good thing?  Considering you work in an area where you see proof everyday of families who can’t afford to feed their children, what is there to be proud of?”

Some of the Team GB gold medalists

Well!  I have to say I was a little stunned by the last remark, but also impressed and glad to see Beth speaking about it with such passion and giving me a good challenge to respond to!  By the way, it’s worth explaining that was based on the fact that my current job is within the team that processes free school meals in Poole Council.  However, what Beth was forgetting here is that although this is indeed my job at this moment in time, my passion and hopefully my life’s work is psychology, wellbeing, and all that sort of thing; the sort of stuff that makes up the majority of my blog posts so far.  And I like to think the Olympics could have a massive role to play in that field.  Whilst it was all going on it definitely gave me a lift to see Team GB doing so well, and I think that was the case for many people.  I also hope there will be longer term benefits in encouraging people to get into sport and exercise, which I strongly believe to be a massive factor in psychological wellbeing (as you can see in some of my previous posts!). 

Was London 2012 just a waste of money? I hope not!

As for the financial side of things, I have mixed feelings on this.  In response to Beth’s point, I would be inclined to think that the Olympics taking place or not taking place in London wouldn’t have made a bit of difference to the number of people that can and can’t afford to feed their children.  Beth said it herself; we are one of the richest nations in the world, and yet there are still people in that position in this country.  I’d say that sadly it’s a symptom of society, rather than a problem caused by things like the Olympic Games.  I don’t know what the long term plans are for the Olympic venues yet (I’m not sure anyone does!), but I hope that they will be put to good use, create lots of jobs (therefore enabling more people to feed their families!), and boost Britain’s economy.  Admittedly, it could go completely the other way and end up being wasted, but the hope is there…

My final comment is a response to Beth’s view that we would obviously do well in the Olympics because we can afford to train people to be really good at a sport.  That is true to an extent, and it’s undeniable that good equipment and training will benefit sportspeople and improve their performance.  But even with the best equipment and all the money in the world, there is no way someone is going to become Olympic champion at something without a massive amount of training, hard work and determination.  And I think that’s what made me feel proud of Team GB; the thought that all those people had evidently put an enormous amount of effort into working towards the Olympics, and that their hard work was paying off and making so many viewers happy as well.  I’ve never felt such a sense of unity or a particular sense of pride to be British before, but the Olympics really did instil those feelings in me.  I think they did for a lot of other people as well, and in a time of hardship for many people, I think it was just the lift GB needed.  That can’t be a bad thing, right?!

I hope you’ve found this a good read and that this debate has given you some food for thought, as it did for me.  As usual I would love to hear about other people’s views, and comments are welcomed and encouraged!  As always, thanks for reading. 

Links: 

http://www.xperthr.co.uk/blogs/employment-intelligence/2012/08/could-an-olympics-happiness-ef-1.html

'My Roots Will Keep Me Honest'

The group awaits the results on BGT

 This lyric is a line from the song Honest by Britain’s Got Talent finalists The Loveable Rogues.  After going to a PA and live performance of theirs recently, I’m a little bit concerned that like many reality TV musicians, they are at risk of being ruined, or at least losing credibility, by their management's actions. But I'm hoping that their 'roots will keep them honest', true to their musical style, and to be a credible and successful act… Let me explain:

 

 Yesterday evening I was in Bournemouth for the Olympic Torch evening celebration and happened to spot The Loveable Rogues having their picture taken with a fan. Sadly I didn't seize the moment & say hi to them, but after the Olympic Torch event had finished, I did some investigating and managed to find out via Twitter that they had a gig in Swanage that night.  Swanage is about an hour away from Bournemouth by car, and by this time it was a mad rush to get down there in time (in the end we needn’t have rushed so much. The venue's website said last entry at 10 & starting at 10 – so, we arrived just before 10 - but ended up waiting round for about an hour before they came on!)

The Loveable Rogues performing at Bar One, Swanage

Now, having been really looking forward to seeing the guys play live, I was disappointed by the gig itself.  Not by the boys but by what I imagine to be decisions taken by their management.  Firstly, the venue (a tiny little club in Swanage) didn't lend itself to their style of music.  The sound quality was quite poor and an acoustic band really needs to perform in a venue with good acoustics – funnily enough! – not a room that is best used for pumping out loud, bassy club music (not to mention the fact there was a pillar right in front of their performance space!  Luckily, I got a spot where this didn't obscure my view...)

Also, the "gig" actually turned out to be only about 5 minutes or so long as the group only performed 2 songs (the same two that audiences saw them perform on Britain’s Got Talent).  After the performance, audience members were given the chance to queue up to have their picture taken with the guys by a professional photographer, and then presumably had to pay an extortionate sum to get their hands on some form of print.  This leads me to believe that their management, or whoever, are simply out to make a quick buck out of them off the back of the BGT hype without giving them hope for any sort of longevity.

Another snap from the Swanage gig

The trouble is, for someone who's gone to a venue and paid £10 especially to see a band perform their songs (I think I'm speaking for others and not just myself), this is a massive anti-climax.  It's likely to make some people think those are the only two songs they have (I personally didn't think this was the case and have looked the guys up on YouTube and been proved right!).  It’s also likely to make some people less inclined to go and see them again, wondering what the point is if that’s all they’re going to get. 

 I’m hoping that maybe I’m just being cynical about it all and that The Loveable Rogues’ management aren’t going to end up ruining their credibility.  If they are, I hope the band’s ‘roots will keep them honest’ enough with themselves that they don’t allow this to happen.  I think they’re very talented and would like to see them do well and to hear a lot more of their music over the coming years.  Sadly, it seems to be symptomatic of modern Western society that everything’s about the money and the music itself doesn’t seem to matter to a lot of people. 

Seth Lakeman with his violi

The Loveable Rogues aren’t the only victims of abuse from management/record labels in the music world (I acknowledge that I am assuming their management are doing wrong by them; but I am aware that they could have made all the decisions themselves!).  Another example is Seth Lakeman, a folk singer I’ve recently started listening to.  I was checking out his music on iTunes and one person commented on his most recent album that he was glad Seth had parted company with his previous record label, who had tarnished his sound in an attempt to make him more radio-friendly.  Clearly Seth recognised the problem and did something about it.  Similarly, Elliot Minor, one of my favourite bands, parted with the producers of their first album and went back to doing their own production for the second album, because they hadn’t been happy with what the other producers had done.  I like these examples because they show that it is possible to break free from situations like these, stay true to oneself and be successful regardless!

Elliot Minor

I’d be interested to hear about other examples of this sort of thing and to find out what other people think of my views on The Loveable Rogues Situation, so please do leave comments!  Thanks for reading.









Links:

The Loveable Rogues perform Honest:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snexs-1mfzk

 

That's Not Real To Me

The song this post’s title comes from is Real To Me by good old Brian McFadden!  I’ll be talking all about how so much of what we see in the media in today’s society isn’t real, and the difficulties that we face in distinguishing what is real and what isn’t.

What inspired me to write this post is something I saw on TV on Sunday.  I caught the second episode of Superstar, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s latest reality talent show, in which he searches for a ‘Jesus’; someone to play the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar.  To my surprise, Jonathan Ansell (or ‘the blond one out of G4’) appeared on the show.  He’d got through to the boot-camp-style training stage of the show but was sadly sent home at that point.  Anyway, there ended up being a bit of an uproar on Twitter where Jonathan received a lot of stick for being ‘arrogant’, as a result of him being edited to be portrayed in such a light on the show. 

 

Now, back in the day I was a MASSIVE G4 fan (and proud, might I add!) and have followed Jon’s solo career to certain extent since they disbanded.  As a result, I’ve met him quite a few times at gigs and happen to know that he is actually a really lovely guy and has a huge amount of time and respect for his fans.  But 10 minutes on TV showing viewers a couple of moments that don’t paint him in a good light and bang!  A great number of people is left with an inaccurate, negative, but probably lasting impression of his personality.

On a brighter note, Ben Elton has written some quite entertaining novels that illustrate this propensity of reality TV producers to edit people in whichever way they like to make a more entertaining show (namely, Dead Famous and Chart Throb.  Dead Famous in particular is a good read, in my opinion).  Chart Throb basically takes the mick out of singing competitions like The X Factor.  In this story, the Simon Cowell-like producer of the show uses the powers of television editing to make some perfectly reasonable people seem like complete idiots.  For example, a sound-bite of “I’m not claiming I’m the next Elvis” would later be cut down to “I’m the next Elvis”, to make a humble individual seem perfectly arrogant.  Although it’s obviously a fiction book, I wouldn’t mind betting this is a fairly accurate, if slightly exaggerated, representation of how things work on these show in real life! 

As well as being damaging to individuals’ reputations, the media’s portrayal of certain things can also be damaging on a much wider scale to it’s consumers.  I’m talking particularly about media influence on body image, ideal self and self-esteem.  As you may have picked up on in previous posts, body image is something I feel really strongly about and there is a lot of work to be done by various parties to diminish the deep-set problem of poor body-image and self-esteem in modern Western society.  The media has a key role to play in this issue, with the use of airbrushing to create unrealistic ideals in appearance that real people can never hope to achieve, and for that matter shouldn’t hope to achieve!

An example of the images used in Media Smart's educational package

Fortunately, awareness of this problem seems to be on the up, and the Government’s Body Confidence Team has recently worked in conjunction with Media Smart to create an educational package which is designed to teach 11 year-olds about airbrushing and how to distinguish between what is and isn’t real; what images they should and shouldn’t aspire to be like.  What’s really great about this package is that it uses images of really famous people, like Britney Spears and Keira Knightly, and shows children how these people look before and after airbrushing.  This should help to give people the tools, from a young age, to view media images critically and learn how to avoid striving for unrealistic ideals in their appearance.  There is a lot of work still to do, but I think this is a great start.

I could go on about body image all day, but for now I’ll finish there.  Please do leave comments if you have any views on this, and please do come back for more on my views on body image in later posts.  As always, thanks for reading!

You Can't Feel It But I Wish You Could

I’ll just start with a heads-up for people who haven’t read my earliest posts, and explain that I’ve set myself the challenge of naming all my posts after song titles or lyrics.  This may seem a little strange, but I love my music so it’ll be interesting to see if I can think of a lyric to match any topic!   Some of them so far have been a bit far-fetched, but I think this one’s quite apt.  ’m going to talk all about those moments when you wish someone else could feel exactly what you’re feeling, just for a moment.  Oh, I almost forgot… My title is from a song called Growing Up High by Seven Summers, a band Matt Cardle used to be in.  A great band; give them a listen!

So, we’ve all had them – I think! – moments when, say, you’ve had an argument with someone, and you just know that they’d come to their senses if they were you, just for a moment, and thought or felt exactly as you did, just for a moment.  Another lyric that I think depicts this nicely is, coincidentally, also from a Seven Summers song: “Sometimes I wish that you were me, so you could see, just what you’re doing wrong” (from the song Without You).  I’ve definitely felt like this after arguments with family members, thinking surely they would stop saying certain things if they knew exactly how it made me feel!  Or after a break-up, when I thought he would surely give me more of an explanation of what was going on if he knew how I was feeling, even just for a second.  

Anyway, although I’m hoping this is something a lot of people can relate to, the point of this post isn’t to just complain about when other people upset me!  There are positive elements too.  A while ago I was talking to someone about being an emotional person (I can see that this might sound like an odd conversation, but to be fair to us we were in a counselling skills session and it was part of an exercise the tutor had set us!).  We both said that although being emotional can be problematic in bad times, it can also be an amazing thing, because as well as really feeling negative things we also feel really positive things. 

This notion of wishing someone else could feel the positive things you do is what the song my title comes from pertains to - “Got a walk with a wobble and a wiggle in it; you can’t feel it but I wish you could… Got a head like sea, I’m swimming in it; how can everybody look so good?  Look up to the skies; something’s written in it; you can’t see it but I wish you could.  Oh, yeah, I’m loving it; oh, yeah, well I’m fine…” – Admittedly there seem to be hints in the lyrics that this could be drug-induced joy, but it’s a song about wanting to spreads joy nonetheless! (Just to clarify, the type of joy I want to spread is definitely not drug-related!)

If I’m feeling great about life, these are the times when I really do wish I could get other people to feel exactly what I’m feeling.  When I see a beautiful view and realise how amazing the world is, I want other people to feel exactly what I am because it’s such a great feeling; I want family and friends to feel exactly how I feel about them so they know how important they are to me. 

She's trying to tell him how important he is to her!

An example of this is a few months back when a friend was having a hard time and I really wanted to help but couldn’t.  I so desperately wanted this person to at least know exactly how much I wanted to help, because I thought that surely this in itself would help them feel a little better!  I myself was in a really good place, really enjoying life and the world.  It was around this time that I wrote my post My Heart Is Open And The Sky’s On Fire (if you haven’t read it yet, please do!).  This post was all about my positive feelings about life and the world; exactly the kind of feeling I so wish I could make other people feel sometimes.  I’m hoping that by sharing my take on things through my blog I may be able to go some way to inspire a certain level of this positivity in some people (the more people that read it, the better chance I’ll have of doing this, so please do share if you think any of my posts are worth a read!).

I also wish that more people felt the same way as me on what I think are massively important issues in society, such as mental health and body image.  I’ve already mentioned some of these things in my previous posts and will go on to talk about more in the future.  I hope that by doing this I can get my views out there, connect to people who feel the same way and inspire others to get thinking in a similar way to me on certain issues.  In the meantime, I hope people will continue to read posts like My Heart Is Open… and You Could Be Happy and find some inspiration in those.

 

Many thanks as always for reading; please share to help me get my views heard by lots of people, and come back soon!

The Trick To Life...

...“is not to get too attached to it…”, so the song goes.  (For those who don’t know, it’s the title track from The Hoosiers’ first album).  But that’s not exactly what this post is about (I like to think my style is a little less morbid than that!).  Sadly, I don’t think there is really a ‘trick to life’; I’m pretty sure if there was one, we'd all be using it by now!  Please let me know if you have any bright ideas though…!

So, why have I called this post The Trick To Life?  Well, I think one way to do pretty well in life is to be a well-rounded person.  This may sound a bit clichéd and obvious, but bear with me!  I think one of the tricks society needs to learn to better use to help people do this is good, well-rounded education.  If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll already know about my views on how mental health should be incorporated into education.  If you haven’t, then I refer you to my post titled Staring at the Sun.  Although mental health is extremely important, it’s not the only thing that I feel strongly about in terms of education.

What made me decide to write about this today was something I read in my local Youth Parliament manifesto.  One of their notions is that “all young people ages 11-18 should be taught basic politics at school”.  I completely agree:  I for one was barely taught a single thing about politics at school, and the outcome is not good.  It’s embarrassing when it comes to election time or some such event and one simply doesn’t know anything about politics!  And how can a young person be expected to make a reasoned judgement when voting  if they don’t know what the key differences are between the parties?  It seems kind of irresponsible to give people the right to vote without giving them the tools they need to vote wisely (tihs seems an appropriate time to mention a dear friend of mine who votes Labour because their colour is red and he adores Arsenal FC!  He was half joking, I hope!).

It’s not just politics that I believe is severely neglected by the education system.  In my discussions about mental health I’ve already expressed my passion for psychological wellbeing, and another hugely important element of that is body image.  I could go on about this all day and will no doubt be writing about it in more detail in later posts.  But in short I think schools have the potential to do massive amounts to help diminish what experts in the field have called a ‘culture of body dissatisfaction’.  Fortunately awareness of this problem is on the up and there are things being done, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

 

 This weaves back in nicely with my post about mental health awareness.  One of the key things I think could be done to improve emotional wellbeing in general is encouragement of exercise (and not just traditional team sports like netball, football and hockey, but more varied activities to really get lots of young people involved). Not only could this help to prevent illnesses such as depression, but it could also help to alleviate negative body image.  Exercising can help you to feel healthy and maintain a healthy body weight without the need for strict dieting.  I have a lot more to say about this, but I think I’ll save it for another day, so please look out for further posts if this interests you!

All in all, I feel that schools should be doing more to encourage wellbeing and life skills as well as academic success.  I understand that there is already a struggle to fit everything into the National Curriculum, and I agree that the academic side is very important, but I can’t help but think that the value of being academically brilliant is hugely decreased if the person has difficulties in other aspect of their life.  I’d like to hear about other people’s thoughts on this, and will leave you with the question of what sorts of things you believe are really important in education.  Debate, discussion and views contrary to my own are welcome!  As always, thanks for reading :)

Give Me Novocaine

Firstly, apologies for this being a couple of days late.  So far I’ve managed to be posting consistently every other Thursday but just didn’t have enough time to write this on Thursday!  Anyway, as always I hope you find this to be a good read…

This post is actually a response to a comment someone made about my previous post, which discussed raising awareness of, and the possible prevention of, mental health problems.  In relation to when people develop mental health problems, this person asked me “It seems that cocktails of pills seem to be the answer to a lot of mental problems, what are your views on that?”  So, I decided to put together a little post about my views on that, and in the process of doing this explain a little bit about the current guidelines for treating mental health problems.  The title Give Me Novocaine comes from a Green Day song with the same title; obviously novocaine isn’t a drug that is used to treat mental health problems, but the song seems to allude to the notion of just taking pills to make everything better, whereas this isn’t always going to work.  Also, I love Green Day and it’s a great song so why not use it?! 

In answer to the question - what do I think about the use of drugs to treat mental illnesses? - my simple answer is that drugs can be necessary but should not be the first port of call in all cases of mental health problems.  Some illnesses (e.g.: psychotic ones) are more likely to warrant the use of medication.  What I find concerning is GPs’ propensity to administer anti-depressant medication willy-nilly.  (As you may have already noticed in previous posts, I will tend to use the example of depression, firstly because it is the main thing I have a knowledge base in and secondly because it’s such a common illness that needs addressing.)  

My view on this comes from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (or, aptly abbreviated, NICE) guidelines.  These are formed on the basis of evidence, which basically means that NICE only recommends therapies that evidence suggests are effective.  In terms of common mental health disorders, NICE recommends that a stepped care model should be used (NICE, 2012).  This essentially means that the ‘least intrusive, most effective’ intervention should be provided first.  In other words, if, for instance, a person has mild depression, they will be treated accordingly for this; similarly, a person experiencing severe depression will be treated accordingly for the severity of the problem (see the stepped care image below, from IAPT Programme, 2012).  

  

IAPT stands for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies and is another key element of the NICE guidelines on treating mental health disorders.  By using the stepped care model, we are using resources more efficiently, which means more people can be treated.  In turn, this means that people don’t have to wait so long to be treated.  Let’s take the example of depression: for mild depression, cCBT (computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and guided self-help are recommended.  This means the patient uses resources at home and has periodical guidance from a professional such as a PWP (Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner).  These are known as low-intensity therapies and are less intrusive for the individual and free up more of the professionals’ time, meaning more people can be treated at once.  For moderate to servere depression, on the other hand, high-intensity therapy is recommended.  This could be in the form of face-to-face CBT.  

 

The important thing to remember here is that these guidelines are all based on the evidence relating to treatment for mental health disorders, which I why I tend to agree with them.  For example, CBT, IPT (Interpersonal Psychotherapy) and BA (Behavioural Activation), all therapies recommended by NICE for depression, have been found to be as effective in treating depression as antidepressant medication (e.g.: Hougaard & Jørgensen, 2007).  These treatments have also been shown to be more effective than medication in prevention depression relapse (Dobson et al., 2008).  Hence, my view that a cocktail of pills is not the answer to mental health problems!

Don’t get me wrong though; I don’t condemn the use of medication altogether.  In depression for example, the severity could be so high that the patient simply won’t be able to engage in CBT or BA.  In these cases, antidepressant medication can be really useful in making the patient feel more able to engage in these.  The guidelines also recommend medication for patients who have not responded to other therapies.   

Another important consideration though is the fact that antidepressant drugs have a slightly delayed effect on cognition (thoughts) compared to behaviour.  As a result, a person who is feeling suicidal may find themselves feeling more able to act on their thoughts before these types of thoughts start to subside or change.  Hence, very careful consideration should be given before prescribing medication to treat depression. 

So, to summarise, my most basic answer to the question “should drugs be used to treat mental health disorders?” is yes, where the evidence base suggests this is effective.  In terms of depression, I think drugs should only be used where this is necessary due to the severity of the illness or non-responsiveness to other, less intrusive therapies.  I think one of the problems is that anyone who is medically qualified (e.g.: GPs) can prescribe anti-depressant medication, even if they do not have specialised knowledge in this area.  Therefore, GPs seem too often to prescribe drugs when a patient presents with mild depression, when they should be referring them into the IAPT service.  This need to change!

As always, thank you for reading and I would be interested to hear about other people’s views on this so please do leave a comment.  Also feel free to suggest a topic for my next post and I’ll see what I can do!  See you in two weeks…

References:

Dobson, K. S., Hollon, S. D., Dimidjian, S., Schmaling, K. B., Kohlenberg, R. J., Gallop, R. J. … Jacobson, N. S.  (2008). Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the prevention of relapse and recurrence in major depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 468-477.

Hougaard E. and Jørgensen, M. B. (2007). [Psychological treatment of depression.]. Ugeskr Laeger, 169, 1444-7.

IAPT Programme (2012). Services. Retrieved from  http://www.iapt.nhs.uk/services/services/

NICE (2012). http://publications.nice.org.uk/common-mental-health-disorders-cg123/key-priorities-for-implementation. Common mental health disorders: Identification and pathways to care. Retrieved from http://publications.nice.org.uk/common-mental-health-disorders-cg123/key-priorities-for-implementationhttp://publications.nice.org.uk/common-mental-health-disorders-cg123/key-priorities-for-implementation